China’s First Trial Flight Using Bio-fuel

A commercial flight demonstration powered by bio-fuel was done last Friday in the interest of investigating the possibility of using bio-fuel in all commercial flights in China. The one-hour trial flight consumed over 13 tons of bio-fuel blend consisting of half conventional jet fuel and half bio-fuel. The combined fuel powered one of the four engines of a 747-400 jet. The remaining three engines were filled with conventional fuel to ensure safety during the flight.

The plane left Beijing Capital International Airport and six performance test were conducted at various altitudes with the test topping 11,900 meters. The plane’s captain said that everything went smoothly and the flight crew detected no differences in the engine powered by the bio-fuel blend and conventional jet fuel. The fuel trial was part of the Sino-US energy cooperation program.

The flight was a great step forward in the development of China’s bio-fuel industry though experts are saying that the use of bio-fuel on commercial flights still needs more trials. China is by no means the first country to experiment with bio fuels; before China conducted their bio-fuel trial flight there were already several airlines conducting their own trials using different bio-fuels made from coconuts, waste cooking oil, algae and jatropha since 2008.

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